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This paper aims to present a model of the employability confidence of graduates using employability skills. The purpose of the study is twofold: to identify to what extent self-perceived employability skills (input employability) influence the employability confidence of students/graduates (output employability) and to identify if there are determinant relationships between categories of employability skills.

The researchers for this study built and tested an employability confidence model which included seven constructs. Six focussed on employability skills “professional skills, transferable individual skills, transferable social skills, personal qualities, job seeking skills and corporate work-related skills”, while the last one focussed on employability confidence, seen as the students’/graduates’ self-reliance for getting and maintaining a job. The model was refined using structural equation modelling (with SmartPLS 3 SEM software) and was tested by empirically, analysing a sample of participants studying business.

The results illustrated that four categories of skills (personal qualities, professional skills, job seeking skills and transferable social skills) have a positive and significant influence on students’/graduates’ employability confidence, while individual transferable skills and corporate-related skills do not have a significant influence on employability confidence.

The study contributed to the exiting literature by proposing a new model and measurement instrument that links input employability (individual employability skills) with output employability (employability confidence). The model emphasizes the complete range of individual employability skills, the types of skills that are in the control of the individual. It also contributed by collecting data from a less studied country and region, Romania, that can be considered relevant for Central and Eastern Europe due to similar economic, political, cultural and historical characteristics.

From a practical point of view, the results can be of interest to individuals, to universities and the teaching staff, to organizations and their human resource specialists, and to public administrators, as they all can act to support the development of individual employability skills, thereby helping to increase the employability confidence of individuals.

The study contributed to the exiting literature not only by proposing a new conceptual model to analyse employability confidence but also by collecting data from a less studied region, Romania, that can be considered relevant for Central and Eastern Europe due to similar economic, political, cultural and historical characteristics.

Despite the widespread interest in self-marketing, scant research has been published about students’ self-marketing skills. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap and develop a framework for self-marketing brand skills specific to business students.

Aaker’s Brand Identity Planning Model (2002) was used to construct personal-brand-identity elements. Empirical data were gathered from interviews with 17 students from two business schools in Finland, who were selected using a snowballing sampling technique.

Branding-related elements, together with empirically grounded themes, emerged and were developed into a framework for developing self-marketing brand skills. Self-marketing brand core, self-marketing brand goals and self-marketing brand activities were suggested and further divided into sub-topics, becoming the content of the new framework.

The study provides a starting point for further research on self-marketing skills from a branding perspective.

The paper discusses several important practical implications for business students who wish to improve their job-seeking success.

Rather than adopting a knowledge or activity perspective on self-marketing skills in job searching, the study extends the current knowledge by taking a complementary view, i.e. a branding perspective, and highlights students’ mental preparedness and drive.

Job-seeking success relates to engagement with specific job-seeking strategies, so it is important to understand the beliefs that job-seekers have of them. Using multiple methods, this study aims to establish a typology of the beliefs job-seekers have about strategies, create and validate a measure of these beliefs and relate them to job-seeking behavior.

In the first sample, the authors interviewed 77 job-seekers about their job-seeking strategy beliefs. The authors then created a measure and verified its psychometric properties using 396 job-seekers. Finally, using a sample of 628 job-seekers, the authors continued their evaluation of the measure and related strategy beliefs to job-seeker motivation and behavior.

The authors initially identified 21 beliefs about job-seeking strategies. The authors ultimately found support for 15 dimensions, replicating the factor structure across samples. Strategies are perceived to differ on most beliefs, and eight beliefs had unique relationships with job-seeker effort and/or motivation.

The study results can help organizations and job-seekers increase job-seeking motivation by targeting specific beliefs found to have the strongest relationships with strategy use.

This is the first measure of job-seeking strategy beliefs that generalizes across strategies. Furthermore, the authors establish several beliefs that have the strongest relationships with job-seeking motivation.

The SEF – Servicio de Empleo y Formación – (Employment and Training Service) is an innovative, educational and research enterprise created by the Social Psychology Department within the University Jaume I, in Castellón. Its main goal consists of achieving a linkage between the University and the labour market. SEF seeks to advise about transition from education to the labour market, provide professional training for students and graduates, and undertake research and external consulting. The case study describes how SEF achieves its aims and objectives through a series of innovative activities: internships, courses bearing full credits, complementary training, and research projects for students in postgraduate courses.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of employability of information technology (IT) graduates in Vietnam and examines their impact on self-perceived employability and the duration of the job search.

This study is based on data collected from the responses to an online survey from more than 500 IT graduates from different higher education institutions in Vietnam. Employability, its outcome and its key determinants were integrated into one model. Exploratory factor, confirmatory factor and path analyses were conducted to test the model by means of structural equation modeling.

The self-perceived employability of IT graduates in Vietnam was determined by graduates’ English language skills, soft skills, adaptability skills, the quality of the institution’s IT program and job seeking efforts. Results also indicated that work experience, professional competencies and employability made the job search duration shorter, but job seeking efforts made job search duration longer.

Only determinants from individual and institutional aspects were considered, and the sample was also limited to one profession in one country.

Results can inform students and educators about the improvable areas of employability enhancement.

This study fills a gap in the employability research by providing a quantitative explanation about relationships among the employability, the job search duration and their key predictors from different aspects.

The paper seeks to provide perspectives on the job search expectations and job seeking strategies of Australian graduates, including their perceptions of University Careers Centres (UCCs).

A total of 45 new graduates and representatives of five UCCs were interviewed.

Both Australian graduates and UCCs are aware of the misalignment between graduates' high expectations and job search realities, but currently do little to proactively redress it. The study also found major inconsistencies between the viewpoints of graduates and UCCs regarding the usefulness of UCCs, as not only did most graduates not use these services, they were often completely unaware of them. This suggests that many graduates find employment based on learning through adversity and persistence rather than good career management.

The research interviewed a small number of new graduates across many disciplines. Focussed interviews from more students in specific discipline areas would be useful.

UCCs should develop strategies for engaging students in the career seeking process early in their studies, and promote the availability and utility of their services. In addition, strategies should be developed to increase students' awareness of the realities of job and career seeking, and to develop their resilience in this area.

The paper increases understanding of student experiences when job seeking, which can be used by universities and UCCs to better prepare students for, and support students during, this process.

This study aimed to focus on developing a career competency model by examining the relationships among career competencies and career success from a career development viewpoint.

This study adopted questionnaire survey to collect data from a sample of 277 respondents at 36 international tourist hotels and used the AMOS statistical software package to perform structural equation modeling (SEM) for analysis.

The results showed that career competency model is a multifaceted construct comprising four competency dimensions that influence the career success of food and beverage (F&B) department employees in international tourist hotels. In particular, the competencies related to “career adjustment and control” competency dimension were the most influential competencies for career success.

The career competencies detailed in this study are a potential reference for the planning of core or general education courses in the hospitality domain. Hospitality programs can offer a “hospitality career and employability” course that presents modules such as career recognition, career planning, self-management, job-seeking and mobility techniques, problem solving skills, ethics and safety in the workplace, workplace attitude, teamwork, and communication and networking skills.

This paper outlines the results of research analysing the impact of the recession of 2008‐2009 on public libraries in the Midlands region of the UK. Specifically, it explores the validity of James' “librarian's axiom” in this context, which proposes that use of public libraries increases during a recession.

Analysis of usage data from two public library authorities gathered through a specially designed questionnaire was supported by interviews with library staff from four authorities, working at both operational and strategic levels.

The results show that the credit crunch had an impact on use of public libraries in the Midlands, thus supporting James' axiom. The principal finding is that more people used libraries during the recession, particularly for job‐seeking activities, advice and training. It also emerged that public libraries recognised that the credit crunch provided them with an opportunity to promote their free and low‐cost activities, as well as develop new services to respond to the information needs of library users in a recession.

Only four library services participated in the research; a larger sample would have provided a more complete picture of the impact of the recession on public libraries. There were also issues with data collection at library authority level, which meant that not all data sets were complete.

The paper provides stakeholders within the sector with valuable evidence of the impact of public libraries on vulnerable members of the community during a time of national crisis. It also suggests areas for improvement including strengthening links with relevant local organisations.

This paper reports the first UK‐based empirical study of the impact of the recent recession on public libraries.

This paper reports on the implementation and evaluation of the JOBS programme in Ireland. This is a training intervention to promote re‐employment and improve mental health among unemployed people that was implemented on a pilot basis in the border region of the Republic and Northern Ireland. Programme participants were unemployed people recruited from local training and employment offices and health agencies. The evaluation indicated that the programme was implemented successfully and led to improved psychological and re‐employment outcomes for the intervention group, lasting up to 12 months post‐intervention. This paper reflects on the implementation issues that arose in adapting an international evidence‐based programme to the local setting and considers the implications of the evaluation findings for the roll out of the programme on a larger scale.

Analyses the content and methodology of personal development programmes as used within women‐only training. Although women‐only training programmes have increased over the last ten to 15 years, both in the UK and in the European Community, they have developed in an ad hoc pragmatic way. Underlying assumptions have not been examined and theory has not accompanied practice. In exploring the curriculum and methodology of assertiveness and career planning training programmes, finds them limited in their capacity to make transformative change for women. Argues that they have the effect of helping women, on an individualized basis, to adapt to organizations and cultures which are not of their making. Posits that it is only by re‐examining women’s learning and making explicit the challenge to women’s subordination across their diversity, that trainers and participants can take the first steps towards transformative change.